Does RuPaul hate San Francisco?

As the hit TV show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ begins its 11th season, members of the Bay Area’s drag scene ask why only one local queen has made it onto the show

Honey Mahogany knows how to make an entrance. On Thursday, Feb. 28, as the performer arrives at the Lookout for the season 11 premiere of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” she climbs the Castro gay bar’s stairs in a hot pink cheetah-print shift and motorcycle jacket, to be warmly greeted by the crowd. Honey Mahogany isn’t just the host of the weekly “Drag Race” viewing party, alongside Sister Roma: She is also a former contestant.

In fact, Honey Mahogany is the only Bay Area drag queen — just one of 126 contestants over 11 years — to compete on the show.

It’s a startling thing to consider in a drag mecca like San Francisco, a city home to well-known, entrepreneurial queens like Peaches Christ, Heklina, D’Arcy Drollinger and Juanita More. Despite the expensive housing climate of 2019, young drag hopefuls are still moving to San Francisco. Drag queens are a part of San Francisco’s civic life like in no other city: It’s a rare public event without Donna Sachet or the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in attendance.

Shangela, believed to be the first drag queen to attend the Academy Awards, arrives on the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Feb. 24.

(Charles Sykes / Associated Press | San Francisco Chronicle)

That the show can be a major career starter is no surprise to Honey Mahogany, 35, who is also a legislative aide at San Francisco City Hall and the co-founder of San Francisco’s Compton Transgender Cultural District. She was a contestant on the fifth season in 2013. “It exposed me to a world I had only dreamed of,” she says. “It gave me a much bigger platform than I would have had otherwise in other sectors of entertainment and politics.”

D’Arcy Drollinger, co-owner of Oasis, a bar and drag venue in SoMa, points out that for a performer, the difference in booking rates and audiences before and after appearing on the show are significant.

Ultimately, drag and “Drag Race” are show business, emphasis on the “business.” Maybe RuPaul just doesn’t think San Francisco queens are good for her particular brand of drag?

But why, Mother Ru, why?

There is all kinds of speculation on the local drag circuit about “Drag Race’s” San Francisco problem.

“I’m no longer surprised when we don’t see San Francisco represented on the show,” says Sister Roma. “Not surprised, but still disappointed.”

Honey Mahogany (left) and Sister Roma toss out Miley Cyrus face masks during the season 11 premiere party of “RuPaul's Drag Race” at the Lookout in S.F. Cyrus was a guest judge on the first episode of season 11.

(Mason Trinca / Special To The Chronicle | San Francisco Chronicle)

Although RuPaul has called San Francisco “my fave American city” several timeson Twitter, she and the “Drag Race” production team declined to participate in this story.

To get to the bottom of “Drag Race’s” lack of San Francisco representation, we talked to local queens about why they think more San Francisco talent isn’t on the show.

Theory One: The audition process

According to WooWoo Monroe, who auditioned for seasons 9, 10 and 11, the show’s audition process is extensive, involving a lengthy online application and video footage of the performer lip-synching, answering questions and modeling 12 to 14 different looks. It’s common for queens to hire professional help putting together audition videos.

“Every season they require something different,” she adds — and that includes not repeating previous video footage or fashions. “I can’t even imagine what it costs me. Probably in the thousands for costumes.”

Contestants on “RuPaul's Drag Race” season 11.

(VH1 | San Francisco Chronicle)

Mica Sigourney auditioned last season and calls the process “ridic.” “The deadlines are unbelievably quick,” she says.

Is it possible that local queens are not auditioning? Highly unlikely, they agree. But it’s impossible to know how far any local talent has gotten in the audition process or, as D’Arcy Drollinger points out, whether “the best queens are auditioning.”

Theory Two: San Francisco drag is too … many things

Photographer Magnus Hastings, who included several San Francisco queens in his 2016 book “Why Drag?” says that the diversity of San Francisco drag is one of the things that has made the scene attractive to photograph. But since San Francisco doesn’t have one particular style of drag, it might make it harder to define a San Francisco “type” to include on the show.

Mama Celeste adds that the variety in drag types here — the local scene welcomes trans, biologically female and nonbinary-identifying queens — as one of the positive ways San Francisco differs from “Drag Race.”

“Like the city, San Francisco drag is more progressive than other drag scenes,” says Honey Mahogany, meaning both politically and culturally. “Because it is so edgy I think it makes it less digestible for pop culture.”

Mahogany, Hastings and Drollinger all mention, for example, the show has never had a bearded queen in the competition, a hallmark of San Francisco drag since the 1970s drag performance troupe the Cockettes.

Fans at a premiere party for season 11 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” at the Lookout hosted by Honey Mahogany and Sister Roma.

(Mason Trinca / Special To The Chronicle | San Francisco Chronicle)

Theory Three: Reality-show casting

Reality television employs certain tropes in casting that go back to ancient theater: the heroine, the villainess, the ingenue, the double-crosser. Conflict is key, and in the queendom of RuPaul, the tendency to build in rivalries and play up the potential for a feud seldom goes ignored.

It’s possible, Hastings suggests, that these types takes precedent in casting. “Sometimes the best queen for TV isn’t the best queen,” he says.

Theory Four: Social media

Another question on the show’s application: How many social media followers do you have?

Mica Sigourney points out that season 10 winner Aquaria was already a huge social star with a following on Instagram before she was cast, and few queens outside Los Angeles and New York reach that kind of influencer status.

“San Francisco has always been more about advocacy and less about self-promotion,” says Honey Mahogany.

The premiere party for season 11 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” at the Lookout in S.F. Miley Cyrus face masks were handed out in honor of Cyrus, who was a guest judge on the season opener.

(Mason Trinca / Special To The Chronicle | San Francisco Chronicle)

Without answers from the show, it’s hard to know which of these four theories — or any of them — are true. But they’re indicative of the kinds of conversations both drag queens and fans all over the Bay Area have whenever “Drag Race” announces a new season’s cast and when, almost inevitably, we remain unrepresented.

We should ask another question: What does “RuPaul’s Drag Race” lose by not having San Francisco performers on the show? Hastings says, ultimately, it puts the show at a disadvantage.

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San Francisco queens leave audiences asking “What the hell?” as often as they scream, “Wow!” “You can’t swing a wig in this town without hitting some arty queen,” says Mica Sigourney. “Isn’t taking risks what drag is all about? We’d make the show a lot less safe.”

In a city where drag is a central part of the city’s social and artistic life, “Drag Race” viewers also miss an opportunity to engage with performers who view their art and their civic life in a more integrated way.

For Juanita More, the question shouldn’t be why San Francisco queens aren’t appearing on RuPaul’s show, but rather: “What’s a better way of showcasing drag talent?” She suggests taking a look at different regions’ drag traditions and telling the stories of local performers. “Does it have to be in a competition?”